Sport: Football Inducted: 1999Country: United StatesBorn: December 20, 1888
in Tukum, Kurland, RussiaDied: February 14, 1969

Joe
Magidsohn was a University of Michigan All-America halfback
in
1909 and 1910. He did not play high
school football since it was not played
at his school, and played only two
years of college football. Nevertheless,he was the first
Jew to win an “M” (college letter)
in University of Michigan athletics.

His powerhouse Wolverines lost
only one game during the two seasons
he starred at halfback. Michigan’s stunning
12–6 defeat of the University of
Pennsylvania in 1909, in which Magidsohn
scored both touchdowns, was the
first time that any Western team had
beaten one of the Big Four of American
college football—Penn, Yale, Princeton,
and Harvard.

Of the celebrated times a Jewish
athlete has taken a day off on the Jewish
High Holy Days, Magidsohn is
likely the first to do so. According to
Magidsohn, his coach “reluctantly excused
me from workouts for two days
to attend Rosh Hashanah services.”

Magidsohn was a Western Conference
football official for 35 years from
1912 to 1946 and was assigned to many
of the college “big games,” including
Army-Navy, Rose Bowl, and College
All-Star games.